MasterCard recently announced that their new credit card will have a built in fingerprint scanner!
I found this news item very interesting since I recently blogged about Apple Pay, and Apple Pay uses fingerprint scanning technology to allow users to pay using their iPhone.
MasterCard suggests that by having a finger print scanner on your credit card, you can not only bypass the annoying 4 digit PIN code entry, but also prevent other individuals using your credit card.
Off the bat, I think that this is actually a great idea, since I have always thought that entering your PIN code during each transaction is quite annoying. Of course I can see many issues with this new and growing technology such as the fingerprint scanner only working some of the time. But these issues should be easy to mitigate with the amount of technologies available in present day. The fingerprint scanner on iPhones work amazing, and never have failed on me. Although it is much different to implement a scanner on something as thin as a credit card.
I think that with the introduction of all these quick pay systems, the annoying payment experience will be sped up, thus ultimately speeding up the entire shopping experience and also reducing line-ups at stores. Definitely a lot of potential in this market.
Categories: